jangle

present singular third person jangles · participle present jangling · participle past jangled · past jangled

1. transitiveTo cause (something) to make a rattling metallic sound.

   Now ſee what noble and moſt ſoueraigne reaſon / Like ſweet bells iangled, out of time, and harſh, /That vnmatcht forme, and ſtature of blowne youth / Blaſted with extacie, […]

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

2. figurativelytransitiveTo express or say (something) in an argumentative or harsh manner.

   You always could / Find that soft spot in me when I was angry / You always could / Jangle everything that I would say / Until you got it your way

   1978, Ashford & Simpson, “You Always Could”, in Is It Still Good to Ya

3. figurativelytransitiveTo irritate or jar (something).

   The sound from the next apartment jangled my nerves.

4. intransitiveTo make a rattling metallic sound.

   A ſincere Heart that would ſerve God with his beſt, findeth more in a duty, than he could expect: and by Praying gets more of the fervency and Ardours of praying, as a Bell may be long a raiſing, but when it is up it jangleth not as it did at firſt.

   a. 1678, Tho[mas] Manton, “[The Transfiguration of Christ.] Sermon II.”, in Christs Temptation and Transfiguration, Practically Explained and Improved in Several Sermons, London: [s.n.], published 1685, →OCLC, pages 43–44

   1 more example

   There is hardly a week without some saint in it who has to be commemorated, and often there are two in the same week, and sometimes three. I know when we have reached another saint, for then the church bells of the nearest village begin to jangle, and go on doing it every two hours.

   1920, [Elizabeth von Arnim], In the Mountains, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, page 43

5. archaicintransitiveTo speak in an angry or harsh manner.

   Prussian Trenck, the poor subterranean Baron, jargons and jangles in an unmelodious manner.

   1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Fatherland in Danger”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, book III (The Girondins), page 184

   2 more examples

   What jangleſt thou Jedburgh? thou jags for nought, / There ſhal a guilful groom dwell thee within, / The towre that thou truſts in, as the truth is, / Shal be traced with a trace, trow thou none other: […]

   1745, “The Prophesie of Waldhave”, in The Whole Prophecies of Scotland, England, France, Ireland and Denmark; […], Edinburgh; London: […] M[ary] Cooper, […], →OCLC, page 25

   [T]hat brutish god-forgetting Profit-and-Loss Philosophy and Life-theory which we hear jangled on all hands of us, in senate-houses, sporting-clubs, leading-articles, pulpits, and platforms, everywhere as the Ultimate Gospel and candid Plain-English of Man's Life, from the throats and pens and thoughts of all but all men!

   1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Working Aristocracy”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk), page 108

6. archaicintransitiveTo quarrel verbally; to wrangle.

   The time of year a twelvemonth past, / When Fred and I would meet, / We needs must jangle, till at last / We fought and I was beat.

   1896, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “[Poem] XXV”, in A Shropshire Lad, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, The Bodley Head, published 1906, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 36

   2 more examples

   Good witts will be iangling, but gentles agree, / This ciuill warre of wittes were much better vſed / On Nauar and his Bookmen, for heere tis abuſed.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   Homoiousion, Homoousion, vain logical jangle, then or before or at any time, may jangle itself out, and go whither and how it likes: this is the thing it all struggles to mean, if it would mean anything.

   1840 May 8, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture II. The Hero as Prophet. Mahomet: Islam.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, →OCLC, page 58

   Synonyms: squabble

7. Northern EnglandintransitiveOf a person: to speak loudly or too much; to chatter, to prate; of a bird: to make a noisy chattering sound.

   It was uſual then about midnight, when there was no noiſe in the houſe, but all ſtill, to hear the two nightingales jangling, and talking with each other, and plainly imitating men's diſcourſes.

   1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of the Nightingale, and Other Soft-billed Song-birds”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume V, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 293

plural jangles

1. countableuncountableA rattling metallic sound; a clang.

   E'en as she spake they heard the musical jangle of sleigh-bells, / First far off, with a dreamy sound and faint in the distance, […]

   1873 August, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[I. Tales of a Wayside Inn.] The Theologian’s Tale. Elizabeth.”, in Aftermath, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, stanza II, page 45

   1 more example

   Jessamy tugged the scrolled iron bellpull which hung down on one side of the gate. Somewhere behind, she could hear an answering jangle.

   1967, Barbara Sleigh, “The Holiday Aunt”, in Jessamy, 1st US edition, Indianapolis, Ind.; Kansas City, Mo.: Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 8

2. countablefigurativelyuncountableThe sound of people talking noisily.
3. archaiccountablefigurativelyuncountableArguing, contention, squabbling.

   But now Sir Peter if we have finish'd our daily Jangle I presume I may go to my engagement at Lady Sneerwell's?

   1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, II.i

   3 more examples

   [I]t may be juſtly ask't, whether Timothy by this here written might know what was to be knowne concerning the orders of Church-governours or no? If he might, then in ſuch a cleere text as this may we know too without further jangle; […]

   1642 (indicated as 1641), John Milton, “That Church Governement is Set Downe in Holy Scripture, and that to Say Otherwise is Untrue”, in The Reason of Church-governement Urg’d against Prelaty […], London: […] E[dward] G[riffin] for Iohn Rothwell, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 8

   Homoiousion, Homoousion, vain logical jangle, then or before or at any time, may jangle itself out, and go whither and how it likes: this is the thing it all struggles to mean, if it would mean anything.

   1840 May 8, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture II. The Hero as Prophet. Mahomet: Islam.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, →OCLC, page 58

   We seem to hear the jar, the jangle, the abuse, the irrelevant argument of an Athenian court-room—Philocleon in the Wasps will not have been the first to find delight in legal battles.

   1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VIII. Orestea. III: Eumenides”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, pages 222-223

   Synonyms: altercation, bickering

4. attributivecountableuncountableentertainmentA sound typified by undistorted, treble-heavy electric guitars, played in a droning chordal style, characteristic of 1960s folk rock and 1980s indie rock music.

   If you like ‘jangle guitar’—where the guitar parts are chordal, arpeggiated and rhythmic—listen to players like Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, Peter Buck with R.E.M. (Life’s Rich Pageant) or Johnny Marr with The Smiths (The Queen Is Dead).

   2008, Rikky Rooksby, Play Great Guitar: Brilliant Ideas for Getting More out of Your Six-string, Oxford, Oxfordshire: The Infinite Ideas Company, →ISBN, page 228

   Synonyms: jingle-jangle